Thunder Castle make it five wins in a row
Two first-half strikes were enough for Buriram United to claim their fifth straight Thai League 1 victory last night when they beat Chonburi 2-0 to retain their ninepoint lead.
With 10 more matches to play, the Thunder Castle are now odds-on favourites to hold on to the top-flight trophy for another year.
Buriram were put ahead in the 14th minute by their prolific Brazilian forward Diogo Luis Santo and kept a firm grip on the match shortly before the breather when Jakkraphan Kaewprom doubled the margin.
Air Force Central, who until a week ago had been on an 11-game losing streak, produced another impressive show to continue their recovery in the league.
The league cellar-dwellers were expected to lose heavily at fourth-placed PT Prachuap last night but they surprised everyone with a 1-1 draw, which came on the heels of a shock 3-2 victory over thirdplaced Port last week.
Air Force were on course for another upset win but were denied by an injurytime penalty which Prachuap’s Jonatan Reis converted to cancel out a 53rd-minute goal by Pinyo Inpinit.
Reis earned the spot kick when he was fouled by Air Force’s Aleksandar Kapisoda inside the box to help Prachuap escape a dip to fifth place in the table.
In Sattahip, Navy came back from two goals down to share a point with Ratchaburi last night.
Mark Hartmann and Nerijus Valskis netted for Ratchaburi in the 33rd and 54th minutes but Navy responded with two goals of their own through Amadou Ouattara (61st) and Herlison Ferreira (68th).
Pattaya United jumped up two places to ninth following a 2-1 away win over Suphanburi last night.
Lukian Almeida and Carlos Silva scored for Pattaya in the first half while Cleiton Silva netted Suphanburi’s only goal on the hour mark.